Liberal Dems furious at Obama

Liberal House Democrats wrote to President Barack Obama on Thursday pleading with him to take Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid off the table in debt negotiations.

In a letter to the president, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said any cuts to the major entitlement programs would harm families in a slow-recovering economy.

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Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the caucus’s co-chairman, told reporters Thursday morning that any debt ceiling deal that involves cuts to those programs wouldn’t have his vote. The letter, which includes at least a dozen signatures so far, says they favor improvements to the entitlement programs, not “deep, ideologically driven cuts with harmful consequences.”

“We feel the discussions have been skewed up to this point … and not included the whole spectrum” of possibilities to reduce the deficit, Grijalva told reporters on Thursday morning.

The signers, which include Reps. Grijalva, Keith Ellison (Minn.), Judy Chu (Calif.), John Lewis (Ga.), Mike Honda (Calif.), Danny Davis (Ill.), John Conyers (Mich.) and Luis Gutierrez (Ill.), also called for a tax increase for the wealthy, saying those tax breaks in the past have come at the expense of the middle class.

House Republican leaders have repeatedly said that any deal that includes tax increases will not pass the GOP-led House.

“We stand ready to work with the Administration responsibly to increase the debt ceiling,” the letter states. “The middle class has experienced enough pain during the last three years. Republicans are willing to inflict even more. We will not join them.”

The letter is set to be delivered this afternoon to the White House. The Democrats are also requesting a sit-down meeting with Obama to air their concerns, Grijalva added.

Liberal frustration over Obama’s remarks on Social Security reverberated to the Senate, where Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) gave a more pointed criticism of the president’s proposal. He noted that Obama the candidate campaigned against Social Security cuts in 2008, and the senator added that Americans “expect the president to keep his word.”

“Let us be clear,” Sanders said, echoing an oft-used Obama phrase, “let me be clear.” “Social Security has not contributed one nickel to our deficit or our national debt.”